Stylish, high-end goods break rustic stereotype
Posted By admin on September 20, 2010
By Thomas Russell — Furniture Today, March 9, 2008
furnituretoday.com
High Point — For years, some Latin American furniture makers have boxed themselves into a corner by living up to these stereotypes: Mexico makes rustic-style bedroom and dining room, and Brazil makes bunkbeds.
And, more often than not, these goods are made of pine, which often means they fall into promotional to lower middle price points.
But several companies are moving beyond those niches by offering stylish upper-middle and high-end goods.
For example, Colonial Brazil specializes in a high-end line of 18th-century Brazilian and Portuguese reproduction-style case goods. A signature element of these pieces is their complex and heavily distressed hand-painted finishes.
The 15-year-old company operates a 40,000-square-foot factory in Belo Horizonte in southern Brazil.
President Luis Begazo said that many of Colonial Brazil’s products are customized for various customers, including the design trade, which represents half of its business.
“We are not a typical manufacturer — we are trend setters.”
Another part of the company’s appeal at the high end, Begazo said, is the fact that it primarily uses recycled woods, including woods from centuries-old Brazilian estates and farmhouses.
Antigua Furniture has created a niche with its upper-middle priced line of bench-made bedrooms, dining sets, armoires and home entertainment pieces made mostly from native woods such as palo blanco, matilisguate and pinabete.
Founded in 2002, the company operates an 80,000-square-foot factory in Antigua, Guatemala, manned by 114 local craftsmen, ranging from masons and blacksmiths to carvers and carpenters. Because the company owns and operates the factory, it can offer custom sizes and more than 60 different finishes based on customer specifications.
“Being in Guatemala, there is a rich tradition of fine craftsmanship,” said Sarah Gallop, a business development consultant for Antigua Furniture. “These skilled workers have knowledge passed down through generations.”
The result is a line constructed of kiln-dried solid woods that features a variety of details, ranging from hard-carved accents to mortise and tenon joinery and wood-on-wood glides.
Price points lean toward the high end of the spectrum. For example, dining tables retail from $3,750 to $9,000, with some as high as $19,500. Queen beds retail from $2,500 to $10,250.
A press release the company issued just before the January Las Vegas Market indicated that this high-end focus is meeting with success in the United States and other markets. In 2007, sales rose 55%, thanks to the company’s attention to design and construction details.
“We were able to capitalize on many of the initiatives that we began in 2006, namely our drive to become the most designer-friendly custom manufacturer in the industry, our expansion into the European and Middle Eastern markets and continuing our push into high-end custom home entertainment,” said President Scott Bogart.
In the United States, the company now is looking to expand its presence on the East Coast. Today, 90% of its sales are west of the Mississippi. In January, it brought out some pieces with higher-end hardware and other design elements that it hopes will have strong appeal on the East Coast.
Taracea was formed 25 years ago by Javier Suarez, who began his career in his 20s by refurbishing government-owned palaces and estates around Mexico. That work fostered a passion for 18th-century antiques and furnishings, which then led to him building high-quality furniture.
Suarez started by selling furniture to family, friends and others in Mexico’s domestic market. He entered the U.S. market about 10 years ago and has grown his export business from about $850,000 that first year to about $10 million today. The United States now represents about 75% of its business, and the remaining 25% of sales are in Mexico.
The company produces its upper-middle priced line of bench-made case goods in two factories totaling 100,000 square feet in Toluca, Mexico. The line, which includes classic European-style bedroom, dining room, occasional, home office and entertainment, is made with 60 varieties of wood from Mexico, including alder, white mahogany, white and red cedar, rosewood, walnut, ebony and poplar.
The company gets its name from the Spanish word for the process of piecing together pieces of inlay. Pieces in the line have an artistic flair, thanks to the many intricate burl and inlay patterns on table tops and bed panels.
Retail price points range from $9,000 for a dining table and buffet to $12,000 for a four-piece bedroom.
“Our success is basically the quality of furniture we produce and the fact that we use so many different woods,” said Carlos Sampere, vice president of U.S. sales.
Miami-based Roberta Schilling Collection got started in 1995 and currently sources its entire medium to high-end furniture line in Brazil.
President Roberta Schilling, who is a native Brazilian, started as a buyer for her mother’s furniture and accessories store in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. She decided to source product for her own furniture import company after seeing a niche for the types of hand-painted looks that Brazil manufacturers produce.
Today, she deals with five furniture factories and 50 other vendors for one-of-a-kind accent pieces.
Styles range from traditional to the contemporary Moderna line. A typical dining table and queen-sized bed retail for $7,000.
Such price tags result from two factors: Goods are made from many different native hardwoods, including peroba and Brazilian cedar. And a large amount of labor goes into each piece, including hand painting and distressing.
“It is very labor-intensive,” said Schilling. “I think people who can afford a really well-made product appreciate the quality. It’s something that you will have forever.”
Gerry Cooklin started South Cone in 1987, drawing on the rich heritage of Spanish colonial artistry in cabinets and hand-painted furniture being made in his native Peru.
The company got its initial experience in the high end by producing accessories with elements such as reverse-painted glass. It sold these items to high-end furniture stores and a furniture manufacturer in the States.
It then branched out into larger items such as leather chests with nailhead trim.
Eventually, the company began to produce and market its own line of low to medium high-end priced case goods.
Today, South Cone operates a 120,000-square-foot factory in Lima, Peru, that makes bedroom, occasional, home office and dining. It also has a 40,000-square-foot plant in Santa Fe, Argentina, that specializes in dining tables and chairs.
In addition to a highly skilled and artistic work force, the Peru plant benefits from a wide range of native Peruvian hardwoods. The company also has taken a leadership role in the environmental movement through its use of sustainable hardwoods.
Cooklin said his company’s sales peaked in 2004, and since that time it has been trying to grow business by moving more upscale.
Today, a typical dining set with a table, eight chairs and a buffet would retail for nearly $13,000.
“The last four years have been tough, and we have had a lot of road bumps,” Cooklin said, in reference to the fact that South Cone lost seven of its top 10 accounts around 2004. “But we have some very strong fundamental competitive advantages that will continue to drive growth for us.”
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